I can’t imagine DJ’ing and not playing at least one track by the late, great Esquerita – an endless source of fascination and inspiration for me. Little Richard may be the Queen of Rock'n'Roll, but Esquerita (his chief influence) comes close. I played “Esquerita and the Voola” while Bomb Voyage and Peekaboo Pointe posed together – with Esquerita’s knuckle-pounding off-key piano and blood-curdling whooping, it sounds like the soundtrack to a voodoo ceremony. Read about the demented genius and tragic life of Esquerita on this excellent blog.

Another heroine (and one I had the chance to meet before she died): sex kitten deluxe Eartha Kitt. "Do It Again" tends to be perceived as one of Marilyn Monroe's musical signatures, but I love Eartha's sensual, purring rendition. Check out her singing it on a 1962 television special -- her constant smouldering eye contact is mesmerising.

Cyril Roy is like my petit frère. I got to know him in the mid-90s when he used to play in the awesome garage punk band The Sires (I interviewed them for the legendary hardcore punk zine MAXIMUMROCKNROLL). He also used to work behind the bar at The Elephants Head in Camden Town (my all-time favourite pub). With his raspy Pepé Le Pew French accent and Gallic joie de vivre, Cyril was a much-loved fixture in London on the retro rock scene. Years ago he married a Japanese woman and re-located to Tokyo, where he managed a bar. Every few years he visits London, and is as reliably debauched and hilarious as ever.

A while back I started getting occasional cryptic emails from Cyril saying he got an acting gig and would be appearing in the new film by Gaspar Noé, the French-Argentinean enfant terrible / provocateur notorious for the brutal rape revenge film Irreversible (I’ve never seen that film and don’t intend to – I’m very squeamish. I know someone who saw it years ago and is still traumatised!). This was a very surprising development, as Cyril had never expressed an interest in acting. Sure enough, when the film Enter the Void screened at Cannes in 2009 there was Cyril photographed with Noé and the rest of the cast on the red carpet. I’ve been dying to ask him about it ever since.

Finally caught up with Cyril this week when he was passing through London (touring with the Japanese garage punk band The Minnesota Voodoomen), which coincided with the film’s premiere in London. Managed to snatch a quick drink with Cyril before seeing a screening of Enter the Void at The Curzon in Soho (at the French House, appropriately enough). Over a large Pernod Cyril explained how someone from Noé’s production company asked to rent one of the function rooms at the bar where he works to hold auditions for the film. Cyril had been a fan of Irreversible and was curious to meet Noé. When they finally did meet, Noé – presumably impressed by Cyril’s charisma and grungy sense of style -- asked him if he’d be interested in doing a screen test. Apparently he liked the results, because Cyril wound up with one of the lead roles! To me, Cyril is the best thing in the film – but then I would say that.

Enter the Void is Noé’s hellish, hallucinatory vision of Tokyo as a neon-lit purgatory. The soundtrack is mostly one long menacing industrial throb while Noe’s astonishingly mobile camera swirls and swoops overhead, capturing a cavalcade of depravity below. In truth I’d find it hard to recommend the film (it’s two and a half punishing and intense hours of having your face rubbed in squalor!) but it is virtuoso and original filmmaking – Enter the Void is a bit of an endurance test, but also a genuinely memorable experience. And I’m so proud of Cyril! He told me that Noe paid him the compliment that he “eats the screen.” It’s true, he does.

/ Characteristic pose for Cyril outside The French House in Soho: drink in one hand (Pernod), cigarette in the other. Note the beautiful skull ring /

/ Cyril and Dominique Gillan outside the Wenlock Arms in Shoreditch /

/ Cyril and I outside the Wenlock Arms in Shoreditch /

/ Cyril and French chanteuse Fabienne Delsol (his former bandmate in The Sires) outside the Wenlock Arms in Shoreditch /

/ Cyril displaying his impressive Japanese tattoo. (Trust me, it extends down to his ass) /

Enter the Void UK trailer:

Read Peter Bradshaw's five star (!) review of Enter the Void in The Guardian here.

Read an interview I did with Cyril circa 1998 and his bandmates in Dollicious for Razorcake.

Saturday, 4 September 2010

Quickly posting my set list from earlier today -- I depart to Canada for two weeks early tomorrow. It was a fun and memorable Dr Sketchy: the burlesque performer / model this time was Khandie Kisses. Our usual resident emcee Dusty Limits was indisposed; his replacement was glamorous burlesque performer Kiki Kaboom. I’d never worked with her before and she was a blast: a wry, relaxed and engaging mistress of ceremonies, and best of all she finished things off by serenading a guy from the audience with an alluring rendition of the Marilyn Monroe standard “You’d Be Surprised.”

Kiki in action (her showreel, to the tune of the awesome "Boss" by The Rumblers):